A sheet-formed article made of flexible foamed rubber such as urethane formed rubber is stored and conveyed while being held wound on a tubular member such as of paper for convenience in handling.
Normally, a sheet-formed article is continuously formed such that an elongated block of flexible foamed rubber is levelled into a predetermined thickness of material by means of a blade while it is being moved. As a sheet-formed article is supplied continuously in such a way, winding thereof onto a tubular member is preferably effected automatically by a machine.
Thus, various winding apparatus have been proposed so far. In such winding apparatus, however, it is required that sheet-formed articles be constant or fixed in dimensions and materials. However, such sheet-formed articles are often varied suitably in dimensions and materials in conformity with applications thereof, and several types of sheet-formed members are often produced on the same manufacturing line. Accordingly, the conventional apparatus cannot deal properly with such conditions.
In this way, in the conventional apparatus, it is impossible to automatically wind various sheet-formed articles, and two workers are normally required for attaching an end of a sheet-formed article to a takeup tube.